We are going to build a small wooden house on stilts using new mai daeng for floors (outside veranda under roof and living room and bedrooms) and walls. The wood has been dried for about four months, I hope that is enough?

If we want to keep the natural color or maybe change it to a shade more like golden teak (if that is possible), what do you suggest we should use in each case? Do you know if sellers of TOA let me test different shades (TOA Color World) if I bring a piece of wood?

najarn,I have a golden teak wood front gate that was originally stained with poor quality oil stain and not sanded back properly. The colour varies from plank to plank, depending on the part of the tree it was cut from. It can range from a deep chocolate colour to a very light brownish yellow and finally after exposure for 12 to 2 years to the sun and elements it goes a grayish colour if not stained. The teak had not been sanded back properly and when I decided to stain it with a high quality German stain (I can check and see what we used) it took three sandings with my belt sander and different grades of sandpaper to get it totally smooth. It now has three coats of dark water based stain and will probably require that to be renewed ever five years.HomePro and other large stores that stock paint in Thailand all have charts and I've found they know what they are talking about (most of the time) and will make recommendations. Take the sample into them and let them look at it, but make sure you get the high quality water based stain or otherwise it looks tacky. Do not get teak oil no matter what people tell you, it dries out, flakes off and looks ghastly.

I have used Sadolin [from Denmark] for many years in both the UK and Thailand ... it penetrates deeply into the wood and has never cracked on flaked in my experience when properly applied to clean new wood. It's not suitable for treating over any existing finishes. Price is not at all bad for a quality imported product ... worth the money I reckon. You can use just this and re-coat [no stripping required] when it appears to fade or to give added protection from increased UV here I have used Beger Delight SO14 as a top coat ... it's called a woodstain but is clear and dries semi-gloss. Delight is readily available but Sadolin can be a little more difficult to find ... Home Mart have it in many of their outlets.

“Some days I am an optimistic pessimist ... other days I am a pessimistic optimist”

never used it personally for this precise application.i am wanting to see what Joe is doing these days and will ask and post once get connected. Got his voice mail last 2 calls- he is no big inet user- but will also post his facebook - last fb pm is still pending for 2 weeks.My guess is it worksJoe recommended tung oil for expensive woods as brings out natural color and stays on once applied.anyone ever using tung knows it takes time to soak into wood so imagine reverse is true- seem to recall Joe said i could use sealer if i wanted, but never did as results were so fab with just the tung and i liked the natural wood look- gave a nice gloss but not shinny.had one cheap patio pinewood box/table sitting outside that was tunged with leftover and it held up just fine during 5 years of observation. I also tunged my xj6's wood trim which would get blistering hot in summers- when traded the 87 jag in '03-ish the interior 'looked' spanking new